The legislation means that from Friday all large shops and supermarkets in England must hide cigarettes and tobacco products from public view.

"It's also about supporting smokers who want to give up," Lansley told BBC Breakfast. "There's more than a third of smokers who say they want to stop. Each year we have nearly 800,000 smokers who try to quit, 50% succeed. We want to continue to increase that proportion, help more people to stop."

The Department of Health said the move was in response to evidence that cigarette displays in shops can encourage young people to take up the habit.

According to its figures, more than 300,000 children aged under 16 try smoking each year and 5% of children aged 11 to 15 are regular smokers. About 39% of smokers say they were smoking regularly before the age of 16.

Lansley dismissed the suggestion that smoking could become more attractive to young people if it was kept hidden and insisted the key issue was about "shifting the culture".

"The culture is about moving to a place where tobacco and smoking isn't part of normal life: people don't encounter it normally, they don't see it in their big supermarkets, they don't see people smoking in public places, they don't see tobacco vending machines.

"We are going to continue to try to act against smoking for the simple reason that most smokers want to quit and it is the biggest avoidable cause of early mortality."

Jean King, of Cancer Research UK, told the programme: "We want everything we can possibly do to make cigarettes unavailable and inaccessible and something that children don't see as a normal product."

She said there was "no positive use" for tobacco and no known safe level of use, adding: "We need to do everything we can to prevent young people getting hold of cigarettes."

The health minister, Anne Milton, said: "We cannot ignore the fact that young people are recruited into smoking by colourful, eye-catching, cigarette displays.

"Most adult smokers started smoking as teenagers and we need to stop this trend. Banning displays of cigarettes and tobacco will help young people resist the pressure to start smoking and help the thousands of adults in England who are currently trying to quit."

All tobacco products must be kept out of sight except when staff are serving customers or carrying out other day-to-day tasks, such as restocking. Those found not complying with the law could be fined up to £5,000 or face imprisonment.

The ban on displays will roll out to smaller shops and businesses in three years' time.